The first thing that comes to most any one’s mind when you first mention the word greenhouse is gardening and from there plants, vegetables, and flowers. For some other people that are very creative, a greenhouse has special meanings and even special memories for them! If you have a greenhouse and you are thinking about buying a bigger greenhouse or changing the location of your greenhouse, or if you are moving and trying to sell your greenhouse to a new tenant, here are a listing of suggestions that a greenhouse can be used for after you have outgrown or moved on from your greenhouse.
A greenhouse can be used in colder climates as a bus stop for young children. Of course this is a use for a smaller greenhouse that is more movable than an attached greenhouse. The children can see the bus coming up the road no matter what month or how cold it is outside and they will be protected from the weather and strangers that are passing by! You will be able to see the children in the greenhouse bus stop from your home and you will know that they are safe from the winter cold at the same time! The small greenhouse that is placed by the road, as a possible bus stop in the rural areas is also known to be used as a place to hold garbage for pick up so that the ‘neighborhood animals’ or ‘pests’ do not get into and tear apart the garbage on garbage morning. The garbage man can easily get into the small greenhouse while the animals can not!
Greenhouses have been used as a sand box, with the roof vents removed, but protecting children from strangers when you are not looking, protecting the sand from cats and other little critters that like the sand, and it also serves as a quiet peace time for your children who love to play in the sand without loosing their toys or having an older children wreck their castles. As the children grow, you can start to garden again if you are interested or maybe your child’s interests will involve gardening or still another solution is that your children’s interest will involve the use of the greenhouse as a pottery room with their own pottery wheel and shelving for holding all their goodies! This might seem a little off the wall, but one gardener I knew had to sell her home and was unable to take her greenhouse with her. This was a smaller model greenhouse only measuring eight foot by ten foot but she was having a hard time getting a new owner to accept that the greenhouse could be used for something other than gardening and plants until she realized that her greenhouse was the perfect size for a hot tub or a whirlpool! She started telling her new-interested homeowners that she had a hot tub in the greenhouse at one time but decided to start gardening again. The people that ended up buying her property are installing a whirlpool in the greenhouse! If you are in search of the perfect outdoor building to house your spa, whirlpool or hot tub you should look in to the great variety of greenhouses and sizes of greenhouses to help heat your water.
The greenhouse in an orchard setting is very useful for starting fragile trees that deer love to eat. If you have an orchard and would like to keep your trees growing without putting them in danger of becoming the winter snack for some animal, keep them in a greenhouse over the winter months and you will have complete success! A greenhouse that is not in use over the winter can hold bikes, skates, skateboard and ramps for such summer excitement without having to clutter up your garage! I am sure this is a short listing for the many uses of a greenhouse besides gardening – if you have purchased a greenhouse yet you are not ready to take the plunge into gardening consider taking a plunge into a hot tub in the middle of winter!